Teaming up with RWDS to empower rural women and bringing a smile to Palestinian children

Under the current 4-year agreement funded by AECID, our local partner RWDS visited last month four municipalities in Nablus governorate in the northern West Bank and carried out different seminars involving approximately 100 people from communities of Jama’en, Beit Forik, Beit Dajan and Borqa.

During these, women and men were sensitized in women socioeconomic rights and important knowledge on legal topics was shared.

Rural women in Palestine are playing a central role in agriculture, yet they are held back by barriers that prevent them from feeding their families, paying for sending their kids to school and financially contribute to their own livelihoods. They face continued restrictions related to their gender while also experiencing the difficult financial struggles of their complex context.

Being heavily involved in domestic activities as taking care of the children, cooking and cleaning, they normally remain hidden economically and unable to actively participate and engage in common public spaces for discussion on their rights.

To alleviate this impressive workload, and in parallel to the seminar, RWDS organized in close cooperation with Al-Eshrak kindergarten in Borqa an entertainment day for their little ones -ages 4 to 6-, bringing moments of joy and a huge smile to children’s faces which are difficult to forget.

Behind the scenes, we have the great work of three volunteers that with an enthusiastic approach and colorful costumes were able to make the kids laugh out loud and relieved parents of their worries, at least for one day. A powerful message to them, who see their mothers as agents of change within their communities, and an important reminder to all of us: happiness is in simplicity.